Capt KJ Brar's Company Has 70% Disabled People, And Their App Just Won Best For iPad 2018

Earlier this week, Apple unveiled its big app winners for this year. One pleasant surprise for Indians was a homegrown app snagging the 'iPad App of the Year' title for 2018.

Froggipedia, as it's named, is less than a year old and apparently already turning heads globally.

Images courtesy: Apple

Froggipedia was officially debuted in March this year, with a special mention from Apple at an education-focused augmented reality event. Based on the company's proprietary ARKit, it's the product of Designmate, a Mumbai-based company dedicated to interactive learning software.

Designmate itself is a software company that's been in the business for 30 years. Founder and CEO Captain KJ Brar says its been developing iOS apps since 2010, and they immediately saw the massive potential Apple's ARKit offered teachers in modern day classrooms.

Aside from that though, Designmate has also made waves in the past for its inclusivity hires. Back in 2015, the company and its founder were mentioned by host Aamir Khan during the sixth episode of his show Satyamev Jayate. That's because Brar makes it a point to ensure that over 70 percent of his workforce is composed of the disabled. Over the years, the company has employed over 270 disabled workers and developers.

Froggipedia was actually developed over two weeks by eight developers at Designmate, working under Apple's app accelerator program. Thanks to that, they had help from Apple experts around the world, as well as testing help and feedback from the US headquarters.

It's an AR app that allows students to dissect frogs and study their anatomy from various angles. The app renders frogs in 3D in various stages of their life cycle, allowing for an engaging, interactive experience. And thanks to the pressure-sensitive Apple Pencil, students can also realistically peel back individual tissue layers during their study.

No doubt, their app is currently more suited to iPad equipper classrooms in the US as compared to Indian schools, but the hope is that this is a theme we'll eventually follow as well.